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Connecticut's United Voice for River Conservation

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(Page updated Fri Sep 21, 2007)

Rock Rat Threatens Drinking Water
To all who wrote and called the governor asking her to veto this bill, please hold on to that thought and energy: she quietly signed the bill into law on July 11th.

Photo courtesy Google Earth of the approximate area involved in the lease, based on legislative testimony and discussions. Click on the image, then maximize, for a larger version. For a Google Map of this area, click here.

In the last days of the legislative session, a rat (a term popularly used for covert legislation) was smuggled into the Capitol and inserted in Senate Bill 1341, an otherwise inoffensive Act aimed to improve management of water utilities.  The rat, which passed as Amendment C (Section 6), allows the New Britain Water Company to lease approximately 130 acres of protected watershed lands in Plainville for forty years to Tilcon for rock mining.  In exchange, New Britain will be paid a sum reportedly between $12 million and $15 million.  Plainville and Southington will have a claim to some open-space land (about 100 acres in Plainville and 75 acres in Southington).  And New Britain water might get additional reservoir space, of which it has no need at this time.    To read the Bill, click here.

For some twenty-five years, under a law managed by the CT Department of Public Health (DPH), lands that could affect drinking water sources have been strictly protected from sale, development, or any activity that could negatively affect the quality of our drinking water.  As a former water utility executive put it, "I was told I couldn't touch so much as a blade of grass."

What really shocked environmentalists was not just the content of the bill but that DPH fully supported it and helped to arrange passage.

Campaigns began to restore traditional protections for drinking water, including asking people to call or email Gov. Rell to ask her to veto the Bill, to come to the Water Planning Council meeting that was in New Britain on July 9. Among many who spoke at that hearing included a neighbor and a pastor of a New Britain church, who said that they had no idea what was happening and wanted sunlight on this issue.

The legislation sets a policy precedent in allowing rock mining in highly protected Class I and Class II New Britain Water Co. land in Plainville.  Every water company in the state (private, municipal, and regional) could use an infusion of cash easily gained by allowing mining, timbering and other activities on water company land. This bill is one of the worst seen in many years, both in the covert, dark-of-night method used to pass it, and the content. 

Tilcon is an excellent quarrier, but quarries by their essential character discombobulate hydrology and destroy the water-filtering functions performed by plants and soil.

Tasks ahead include 1) opposing the local project; 2) beefing up protections for watershed lands; and 3) finding a channel of communication with the governor that works.  Three groups that have this high on their agendas are Rivers Alliance, CT League of Conservation Voters, and CT Fund for the Environment, which has a network called the Endangered Lands Coalition. Curt Johnson of CFE vowed to do what they could to see that this kind of sneaky operation never happens again with a water bill.  Others strong allies include the CT League of Women Voters, Audubon CT and many others. 

You can indicate your interest in continuing to follow and perhaps act upon developments coming up by being touch with any one of these groups.  In particular we would welcome suggestions (and try to answer questions.) Many thanks for your interest and generous help.

• Contact Margaret Miner at Rivers Alliance to be kept informed of developments and opportunities for action.  860-361-9349; rivers "at" riversalliance.org

• Contact Curt Johnson at Connecticut Fund for the Environment.  203-787-0646 ext. 111; cjohnson "at" cfenv.org.  CFE's Endangered Lands Coalition  will be working on this issue.

We expect that in the course of the next year, there will be a variety of meetings for people who have an interest in this project.  Rivers Alliance, CFE, the CT League of Conservation Voters, and others are determined that this state will have full and effective protections for its drinking water.  Please be in touch.

Some recent news on this issue:

• State investigates Tilcon watershed deal By: RICK GUINNESS, Herald staff 07/10/2007

• Environmental advocates fight Tilcon deal By: Rick Guinness, Herald staff 07/05/2007
   

Rivers Alliance of Connecticut PO Box 1797 7 West Street, 3rd Floor Litchfield, CT 06759 860-361-9349 rivers@riversalliance.org www.riversalliance.org